Who is; 2; Sonny Rollins

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This record is featured in “National Educational Television.”
Series
Who is
Episode Number
2
Episode
Sonny Rollins
Producing Organization
Allan King Associates
Contributing Organization
Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/512-222r49gz03
NOLA Code
WHDI
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Description
Episode Description
The film shows tenor saxophone player Sonny Rollins, who quit professional jazz twice, once in 1959 for two years and again in 1968, trying to get a psychological and philosophical grip on himself. Rollins was filmed during a time in which he had withdrawn from society. He leaves his Brooklyn apartment, where he lives alone, to play his sax alone in the woods across the East River from Manhattan. It is rare for him to meet and talk with anyone. However, he visits a music school for young children in Harlem which was organized by a friend, jazz drummer Charles Moffett because children are the only people who make him feel optimistic. A respected musician for 20 years, Rollins has been praised for the over-all completeness and simplicity of his improvisation and the wit and strength of his playing. This film attempts to show the relationship between his music and his thoughts and feelings. In 1959, he dropped out of the professional musical scene for two years because he felt depressed about the political, social, and musical injustices suffered by himself and his race. Unlike that of many of his contemporaries and most of the young generation, Rollins music is not militant. He has always been a shay and solitary person, and his natural reaction to injustices is to retreat into music and self-questioning rather than make angry advances at his oppressors. So at the height of his success, he disappeared from the endless round of nightclubs, one-night stands, and a world of liquor and drugs. And again, this year, he has ducked the professional jazz scene. The film captures his mood while he is considering whether he can go on playing, whether he can live in a country he loves but no longer understands, and whether he can make himself emotionally tough enough to go on giving openly and unreservedly his music to the world he sees as hostile. Who Is Sonny Rollins is a National Educational Television presentation, produced for NET by Allan King Associates, London, England. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Series Description
NETs nine half-hour episode series on creative artists, Who Is, explores the lives of nine well-known people in the arts from painting to playwriting, and from modern dance to modern jazz. Through documentary techniques, the individual episodes look closely at the people who make great art, rather than interpreting the art itself. The episodes that comprise this series were originally recorded on film, but were distributed on videotape. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Broadcast Date
1968-09-15
Asset type
Episode
Genres
Documentary
Topics
Music
Biography
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:29:45
Credits
Director: Fontaine, Dick
Interviewee: Rollins, Sonny
Producer: Slevin, Tom
Producer: Fontaine, Dick
Producing Organization: Allan King Associates
AAPB Contributor Holdings
Library of Congress
Identifier: 1849198-2 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 1 inch videotape: SMPTE Type C
Generation: Master
Color: Color
Duration: 0:29:31
Library of Congress
Identifier: 1849198-3 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 2 inch videotape
Generation: Master
Color: Color
Duration: 0:29:31
Library of Congress
Identifier: 1849198-1 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: U-matic
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: Color
Duration: 0:29:31
Library of Congress
Identifier: 1849198-5 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: Color
Library of Congress
Identifier: 1849198-6 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: Color
Library of Congress
Identifier: 1849198-4 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Master
Color: Color
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Citations
Chicago: “Who is; 2; Sonny Rollins,” 1968-09-15, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed May 8, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-222r49gz03.
MLA: “Who is; 2; Sonny Rollins.” 1968-09-15. Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. May 8, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-222r49gz03>.
APA: Who is; 2; Sonny Rollins. Boston, MA: Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-222r49gz03